Huskies lead Pac-12 conference – ‘a bunch of NIT teams’

Congratulations, Washington Huskies. You are now leading a conference full of mediocre basketball teams.

Well, at least, that’s the view from elsewhere in the country. We here on the West Coast may enjoy Pac-12 basketball — though it is fairly hard to watch sometimes — but are we blinded from the truth?

“To me, (the Pac-12) looks like a bunch of NIT teams, every one of them,” CBSSports.com bracketologist Jerry Palm recently said, according to The Arizona Republic. “And to make it worse, they keep beating each other up.”

Look at Washington’s two victories over Washington State. This past weekend, the Huskies escaped from Pullman with a win Saturday after trailing by 13 in the second half. The Cougs “Cougged it” — like they did in January, when the Huskies trailed by double digits in the second half.

Yes, those were Washington wins, but they weren’t pretty wins. The Huskies have won nine of their past 10 games — and that deserves recognition — but smack-dab in the middle of that run was a 25-point loss to Oregon. As Palm said, the Pac-12 keeps “beating each other up.”

Sorry to burst your bubble, Husky fans, but not one Pac-12 team shines on the court. Apart from the occasional nail-biter (I’m thinking UCLA at UW, for example), Pac-12 basketball games have been fairly boring and fairly sloppy.

Other than maybe Utah and USC, any team has a chance to win the Pac-12 tournament next week. Each team has key wins — or, from the other side, key losses — over a so-called better team, such as WSU’s Jan. 19 win over California or Stanford’s two victories over Colorado.

It may not be fair, but the Pac-12 barely appears in the Top 25 polls. California got three points in the latest Associated Press rankings and one in the USA Today/Coaches Poll. Washington only appeared in the latter, with two votes. No national love for the Pac-12.

With the Buffaloes’ win over the Bears this weekend, the Huskies (20-8 overall, 13-3 conference) are now alone atop the Pac-12. But what are they atop? A conference full of NIT teams?

Of course, the winner of the Pac-12 tournament will go dancing in March. But will any other Pac-12 teams even make it to the NCAA Tournament?